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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Daring Bakers Challenge...Tuiles!

Once again I am a very, very bad Daring Baker. Why oh why do I leave my challenges all until the very last minute and I mean the very last minute by doing it the night before it is due to be posted...to be honest I am really sucking at this!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux

Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named. The Dutch angle: traditionally this batter was used to bake flat round cookies on 31st December, representing the year unfold. On New Years day however, the same batter was used but this day they were presented to well-wishers shaped as cigars and filled with whipped cream, symbolizing the New Year that's about to roll on. And of course the batter is sometimes called tulip-paste....

What we would like you to do is:

- use one of the batters given,- shape it either prior (using a stencil) or right after baking and- pair it with something light; fruit, sorbet, a mousse, or maybe even a fruit soup, think glazes or dips…..

Bend it, shape it, anyway you want it!

Following is a recipe taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Recipe:Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

I had wanted to shape mine in a muffin tin immediately after baking to make little cups to hold my filling but for some reason I could not get them to do this so I tried rolling the tuiles around a rolling pin as suggested. That didn't work so good for me either and they started to crumble. The second batch I had my sister help me roll and we used a baster to do the deed. This worked great and I ended up with cannoli like tubes. For my filling I made a very simple whipped cream with frozen mixed berries.

I had to make a mild adjustment to mine as I had no vanilla extract!!! I ended up making do with lemon extract...

Would I make these again? They were incredible and I'm not sure if it was from the lemon extract or if they really tasted this good. T. and my sister inhaled the broken and damaged ones and I barely got pictures of the finished and filled ones before they were all over them! My sister described it as being a nice, light dessert! Huge hit and nice and easy to make...yep I would make these again!!!